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"Helping at-risk mothers access high-quality care, good nutrition and education about healthy living is a way to ensure their children get a healthy start in life"

HARTFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seven nonprofit organizations have been awarded grants totaling $363,650
from the Aetna Foundation to help expectant women from minority
populations have healthier pregnancies and healthier babies. The funding
is part of the Aetna Foundation’s commitment to promoting racial and
ethnic health care equity by reducing the high rate of infant mortality
in the U.S. among vulnerable communities, particularly in the
African-American population where preterm birth and mortality in the
first year of life are double the rates of the white population and
where breastfeeding rates are lower.

The grants will address such issues as breastfeeding, obesity and
pregnancy, perinatal stress, access to prenatal care and the
effectiveness of doulas. The programs will focus on at-risk women and
their babies in California, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas.

“Helping at-risk mothers access high-quality care, good nutrition and
education about healthy living is a way to ensure their children get a
healthy start in life,” said Sharon Dalton, vice president of the Aetna
Foundation and director of its regional grant making. “For example, we
know that breastfeeding can boost immunity and reduce the risk of
obesity for children, and that stress-reduction and healthy weight in
expectant mothers lead to fewer complications in pregnancy and
childbirth.

“Our support of these programs aims to broaden the reach of much-needed
services to women from vulnerable populations and to help organizations
research the effectiveness of their programs to deliver strong results,”
said Dalton.

The Aetna Foundation grants are:

Multiple locations

$145,150 to the Nurse-Family
Partnership National Service Office, based in Denver, for a
two-year quality-improvement study to develop new interventions to
increase breastfeeding rates among first-time African-American mothers
participating in its home-visit outreach program. The Nurse-Family
Partnership (NFP) is available in 34 states and annually reaches more
than 22,000 low-income women from pregnancy through the first two
years of the child’s life. Specially educated nurses work closely with
their clients to develop lifestyle behaviors that can lead to
healthier pregnancies, stronger parenting skills, emotionally and
physically healthier children and greater economic self-sufficiency.
Promoting breastfeeding, which has well-documented health benefits for
both children and their mothers, is a core goal of the program.
Currently, about 79 percent of all NFP clients nationwide initiate
breastfeeding and nearly 28 percent are still breastfeeding six months
later. But NFP’s data also show that its African-American clients
start breastfeeding at significantly lower rates and give up more
quickly than women of other racial or ethnic backgrounds. To better
understand why, the NFP National Service Office staff will hold focus
groups to examine attitudes toward breastfeeding and use the findings
to design and test new strategies to encourage breastfeeding among 240
first-time African-American mothers in three regions where
breastfeeding is less prevalent: Philadelphia; 12 counties in New
Jersey (Camden, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Mercer,
Middlesex, Monmouth, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, and Union); and four
Texas cities (Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio).

Florida

$43,500 to Healthy
Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Broward County, Inc., based
in Ft. Lauderdale, in support of its three-year program, the Mahogany
Project, that reaches out to at-risk pregnant women of color living in
one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods who have little or no prenatal
care or financial resources. The program provides the women with
medical case management services from early pregnancy until their
babies’ first birthday, and includes group support meetings, lactation
consultations, health education and training, and emergency assistance.

$40,000 to Healthy
Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Palm Beach County, Inc.,
headquartered in Delray Beach, in support of its Health Care
Navigation program and Mobile Outreach Center that helps uninsured
pregnant teenagers and women in Palm Beach County obtain consistent
access to prenatal and other health care services that can lead to
healthy birth outcomes. Bilingual advocates guide at-risk pregnant
women through the safety-net health care system, from explaining the
requirements of eligibility to providing translation services at
appointments.

Texas

$30,000 to Neighborhood
Centers Inc. of Houston, for an observational study to examine the
impact of prenatal, delivery and postpartum services by certified
doulas on the birth outcomes and experience of low-income
African-American and Hispanic mothers, ages 15 – 25, living in
Houston. The study will also measure outcomes between doula
intervention and breastfeeding, mother/child attachment, maternal
well-being and infant health and development. In Houston, only about
half of African-American and Hispanic women receive prenatal care, and
the city’s infant mortality rates are higher than state and national
averages.

Pennsylvania

$50,000 to the Maternity
Care Coalition of Philadelphia, to support the first year of a
three-year research study to evaluate a multi-component, low-cost
program to help new mothers reduce their postpartum weight retention
and increase the duration of newborn breastfeeding to curb maternal
and childhood obesity and the risk of cardiovascular disease and other
obesity-related illnesses. The study will track 220 low-income women
in a multi-site, randomized controlled trial to measure the
effectiveness of the program that provides motivational text messages,
in-home physical activity aids, social support, lactation
consultations and nutrition and health education.

Northern California

$25,000 to the Institute
of Noetic Sciences™ based in Petaluma, to translate into Spanish
and make culturally appropriate enhancements to the Mindful Motherhood
Training, an educational program for pregnant women that teaches
mindfulness-based skills to reduce chronic stress, which often
afflicts minority populations at higher rates and can lead to preterm
birth, childbirth complications, low-birth weight and impaired
cognitive development. The program is
currently being modified in a project funded by the National
Institutes of Health to include a greater emphasis on healthy
eating and living behaviors to address the needs of the growing
population of obese low- and middle-income pregnant women whose weight
puts them at higher risk of complications in pregnancy and childbirth.
The Spanish-language version of the Mindful
Motherhood Training will be piloted, tested and refined to ensure
its effectiveness and cultural literacy among Hispanic populations.

$30,000 to La
Clínica de La Raza, Inc., to expand the capability of its
Oakland-based clinic, the San Antonio Neighborhood Health Center, to
provide high-quality and culturally appropriate perinatal support
services in languages other than Spanish to accommodate the growing
diversity of the once primarily Hispanic, low-income neighborhood.
Designed to reduce the number of low birth-weight babies born in the
community, the Health Center’s perinatal program helps eligible women
enroll in California’s Medicaid program and provides individual and
group health education classes, birth control method counseling,
psychosocial case management, nutrition education and counseling, and
breastfeeding instruction.

The Aetna Foundation, Inc. is the independent charitable and
philanthropic arm of Aetna Inc. Since 1980, Aetna and the Aetna
Foundation have contributed $394 million in grants and sponsorships,
including $15.6 million in 2010. As a national health foundation, we
promote wellness, health, and access to high-quality health care for
everyone. This work is enhanced by the time and commitment of Aetna
employees, who have volunteered more than 2.3 million hours since 2003.
Aetna’s current giving is focused on addressing the rising rate of adult
and childhood obesity in the U.S.; promoting racial and ethnic equity in
health and health care; and advancing integrated health care. For more
information, visit www.AetnaFoundation.org.